Shala back to volleyball

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:16PM

When last I sat down to write about Fitore Shala, she was a Richards sophomore who was without the sport she loved, without her hair, without assurances that she'd ever return to what she had always considered a "normal" way of life.

What she did have was friends - tons of friends - and a courageous, optimistic outlook on life that she would get up and beat the leukemia that temporarily had knocked her down.

How wonderful it is today to write that her story has a happy ending.

Shala, now a junior, is not only back at school, but she's a member of the varsity volleyball squad as a setter and defensive specialist.

The leukemia she was diagnosed with in June 2009 is in remission. She finished her chemotherapy in November. She continues to have regular checkups, but has been told by her doctors she can resume normal activities, including volleyball.

That curly, dark hair? It's all hers. And it looks beautiful.

"Well, thank you," Shala said, laughing. "My hair started growing in January. I'm good. I feel great and I'm in the clear."

Shala was the starting setter on the freshman team in 2008, and Bulldogs coach Troy Grevengoed was considering having her move up to the varsity for her sophomore season. Shortly after the end of the 2008-09 school year she fell ill. Within days she went from being a carefree teenager to one facing a battle for survival.

I can't - really, nobody who never has had leukemia or cancer could - truly understand the feeling. I imagine I would have been plenty scared.

Shala wasn't.

"I don't think there was ever a scaredness," she said. "It might sound weird to you that I wasn't scared, but I knew in myself that I could basically fight it.

"The worst part, really, was staying inside all the time. You can't really see anybody and your friends can't come and see you very often because they don't know how to react to it."

She was still luckier than some in that regard.

"(Teammate) Mary Spedale, she's my best friend, has been with me through thick and thin," Shala said. "She came to the hospital with me; she's like my sidekick. Basically, we're joined at the hip. But I kept in contact with all of the girls on the team. They called me, they talked to me through all of this."

On Oct. 15, 2009, Richards held a special "Volley For The Cure" match during which Shala was a special honoree. She was showered with hugs - and pink and orange balloons - by players from both teams.

That, believe it or not, scared her more than the leukemia.

"Yeah," she said, laughing. "At first I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. But when I saw everybody, it was overwhelming."

After getting clearance from her doctors, Shala thought long and hard about whether she wanted to try out for the team this summer.

"I had talked to her in May," Grevengoed said. "She said, ‘You know, coach, I think I'm going to hang up the shoes.' But the first day of tryouts I saw her face and I couldn't stop smiling. That first day back I couldn't believe it. It was just such a shock. A nice shock.

"She's just a neat kid. She's fun to have on a team. Everybody loves her. With or without everything she's been through she's been a great kid to have in the program."

Shala doesn't see a ton of game time yet, because she's basically No. 3 at both the setter and back row defensive positions. But in Thursday's match against Hillcrest, she started. Although there weren't many stats to build in a quick two-game victory, she did have two perfect serve-receives, a dig and great play in which she saved a ball about to drop and sent it back over the net.

Truth be told, whether she's on the bench or the floor, it's all good to Fitore Shala.

"I'm more open-minded than I used to be," Shala said. "I'm more like, ‘Don't really think about it. Just do it.' You only get one chance, and you should take every opportunity that you're offered.

"That's the way I look at it, just have fun. Don't get stressed out over anything. If I hadn't gone through this I don't think I'd live life the way I do now, you know, without the (typical) teenage mentality, ‘Us against the world.'

"There are a lot of people who wouldn't be able to bounce back like this. I'm lucky."

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